Taylor Adams '11 and Deborah Barany '11 Awarded NSF Fellowships

Four Recent Alumni Also Receive Graduate Research Fellowships

By Holly Foster Posted April 11, 2011

Hamilton seniors Taylor Adams and Deborah Barany have been awarded National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships. Adams, a chemistry major, and Barany who is majoring in neuroscience, will both receive a three-year annual stipend of $30,000 along with a $10,500 cost-of -education allowance for tuition and fees, and the freedom to conduct their own research at any accredited U.S. or foreign institution of graduate education they choose.

The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) helps ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science and engineering in the United States and reinforces its diversity. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees in the U.S. and abroad.

In 2009 Adams and Barany both received the Goldwater Scholarship, the premier national undergraduate award in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.

Adams is a Dean’s List student and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society in October. Last summer he served as a research assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces in Berlin, Germany, where he conducted organic chemistry research into the synthesis of and N-linked glycan with potential therapeutic applications for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive type of primary brain tumor.

He has also conducted summer research at Hamilton under the direction of Assistant Professor of Chemistry Nicole L. Snyder where he studied the synthesis of a series of carbohydrate-porphyrin conjugates as potential agents for photodynamic therapy in the treatment of cancer.

Adams is an author on two upcoming publications for science journals and has presented posters at the ACS national meeting. Adams received the 2009 POLYED Undergraduate Award for achievement in organic chemistry, the Dr. Philip I. Bowman Prize Scholarship, the CRC-Press First-Year Prize in Chemistry and the Phi Beta Kappa Book Prize.

He is an officer and trip leader of the Hamilton Outing Club, a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School and a member of the American Chemical Society. Adams is the son of Edith and Brian Adams of Northampton, Mass., and a graduate of Northampton High School.

A Phi Beta Kappa and Dean’s List student, she was the recipient of an National Institutes of Health-funded award for research at the University of Rochester Center for Visual Science last summer. She has also conducted summer and academic year research at Hamilton under Professor of Psychology Jonathan Vaughan from 2008 through 2011.

Barany is an author of a paper published in Experimental Brain Research, 207, and has presented research at the annual meetings of the Psychonomic Society and the International Conference for Posture-based Movement.

She is the recipient of the Edward Huntington Memorial Mathematical Prize Scholarship the Charles A Dana Prize Scholarship, Phi Beta Kappa Book Prize, Kellogg Essay Prize, and is a member of Psi Chi honor society in psychology.

Barany is a member and captain of Hamilton’s women’s tennis team and was selected to the NESCAC all-academic team, plays violin in the college orchestra, is a member of HAVOC, served as a student journalist for Hamilton’s admissions office and is on the curling team.

She is the daughter of Barbara and George Barany of Falcon Heights, Minn., and a graduate of Roseville Area High School.

NSF Fellows are anticipated to become knowledge experts who can contribute significantly to research, teaching and innovations in science and engineering. These individuals are crucial to maintaining and advancing the nation's technological infrastructure and national security as well as contributing to the economic well-being of society at large.

As the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, the GRFP has a long history of selecting recipients who achieve high levels of success in their future academic and professional careers. The reputation of the GRFP follows recipients and often helps them become life-long leaders that contribute significantly to both scientific innovation and teaching.